Two states are no problem, but rules must be followed

Yuval Rotem

IT WAS Oscar Wilde who said, ''Illusion is the first of all pleasures'', and it seems that so many are basking in the pleasure of the illusion that was created around the Palestinian Authority's bid for observer state status at the UN on November 29.

It's an illusion due to the fact that we are not dealing with the issue of whether there should be a Palestinian state. There is no disagreement on this subject. Israel has long been committed to a two-state resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians. It's about how you reach this very expedient reality.

International law lays down at least four criteria to determine whether a functioning state exists. The Palestinians' own top lawyers, including Oxford University's Guy Goodwin-Gill, admit that these criteria are not met by the PA.

One criterion is the existence of a government capable of asserting its authority over the territory of ''Palestine''. The West Bank and Gaza are controlled by different entities. The PA only controls part of the West Bank and, by agreement, only under the overall control of Israel.

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Gaza is nominally under the control of Hamas. There are six other armed groups operating independently in Gaza. Despite regular proclamations of unity between these groups they continue to fight one another as viciously as they fight Israel. ''Palestine'' therefore at present lacks a functioning central government, one of the essential conditions of statehood.

Another condition is a capacity to deliver on international agreements. For the same reasons - a multiplicity of ''governments'' in the West Bank and Gaza - this condition is also not fulfilled.

While different factions hold sway over the Gaza area there is no Palestinian figure or body with the authority to conclude a peace deal with Israel who would be capable of delivering Palestine's part of the agreement. That is the true reason why the PA has done everything it can to avoid a return to negotiations with Israel.

Meanwhile, nothing will have changed on the ground. Expectations among Palestinians will be raised and then cruelly disappointed. Upgraded status in the UN will do nothing to discourage Hamas and other extreme Islamist factions from persisting with their present outright rejection of Israel's right to exist.

The Hamas Charter calls explicitly for Israel's violent destruction in overtly racist terms. There is no diplomatic pressure on Hamas and the other factions to turn away from their genocidal path. How can Israelis be convinced to make a deal with the Palestinians when the Palestinians are not complying with existing agreements of today? The UN is not a venue through which to declare statehood; the only way is through direct and bilateral negotiations.

So far, the Palestinian leadership has been unwilling to accept a Palestinian state, if it meant accepting a Jewish state alongside it. Our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state. It has always been about the existence of a Jewish state.